The Business of Surgery is a practical guide for physicians who want to leave employment and build something of their own, from a surgeon who did exactly that.
Four years ago, Dr. Lauren Umstattd took out a loan, built a 7,000-square-foot clinic and ambulatory surgery center on an empty lot in Leawood, Kansas, hired her own team, and became profitable by year three. Drawing on the twelve-episode Business of Surgery series from her podcast, Fem MD, she walks through everything she wishes someone had handed her in training: the pro forma she Googled during fellowship, the state regulations she taught herself to open a surgery center, the marketing that brought in a patient on day one, and the pricing philosophy that took her facelift from $8,000 to over $40,000.
The guide covers financing, construction, marketing, patient experience, delegation, hiring and firing, profitability, and pricing, along with the less glamorous work of protecting your own stress, home life, and body along the way. It is not formal financial or legal advice. It is an open book of what she did right, what she did wrong, and what she'd do again, complete with checklists and a reading list. You don't need permission to build the career you want. You need a starting point.
